Life Without Coffee
by Pepper9873
Summary: Set in season four. What if Janeway and her crew had no access to coffee.
1. Part One

A/N: I don't know just how to catagorize this story, so for now, it will be under General. Please R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in the story, they are the respectful property of Paramount, I just write stories about them.

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Captain Janeway mader her way to the Messhall. As the door swished open, a waft of whatever Neelix was cooking entered her nose. She went over to the galley, where Neelix was putting some leola root into a pot.

"Leola Root Stew again, aye Neelix."

"No actually, I'm trying something new. I'm calling it Leola Root Surprise. Anyway, what can I get you?"

"Just coffee."

"Oh, I'm sorry Captain, we're out of coffee. May I get you something else."

"That's alright, I'll just get it from the replicator." She went to the replicator. "Computer, coffee, black."

"Unable to comply." came the Computer's response.

"Elaborate."

"That item is no longer availible through this replicator."

"Fine then, I'll just get it from another one." Janeway said more to herself. She left the Messhall. "Bridge."she commanded as she entered the turbolift. The turbolift stopped at the Bridge, and she briskly walked towards her Readyroom, nodding in response to her officers' acknowledgements. She went directly towards the replicator. "Computer, coffee, black."

"Unable to comply"

"Not again."

"Please re-state inquiry."

"Elaborate."

"That item is no longer availible through this replicator."

"Why not?"

"Please re-state inquiry."

"Elaborate." She rubbed her forehead as she felt a headache begin.

"Unable to comply."

Janeway slapped her combadge. "Janeway to Engineering."

"Torres here."

"There's a problem with the replicators in my Readyroom and the Messhall. They won't replicate coffee."

"I'm aware of that Captain, it seems to be ship-wide. Vorik and I are looking into it right now."

"Good, Janeway out." She sat down at her desk, and picked up a padd. Her headache was getting worse, and she was having trouble concentrating on the padd. She put it back down, and pinched the bridge of her nose. _'Come on Kathryn, you can do this. It's just a few hours without coffee. How bad can that be?'_

Two days later, the replicators still weren't working properly, and Voyager hadn't passed any planets with coffee. With her headache getting worse, and her self-control dwindling, Janeway started another day. Her crew was also suffering from lack of coffee, which made matters worse. Crew moral was depleting, and it seemed that the only people who weren't affected were Seven, Neelix, Kes, Tuvok, Chakotay and Naomi Wildman.

In the Readyroom, Janeway and Chakotay were going over reports. "Why does my head hurt so much." Janeway said louder than she wanted, as she rubbed her forhead once again.

"Because you're addicted to caffeine." Chakotay stated matter-of-factly.

"I'm not addicted to caffeine Commander, only coffee."

"Which has caffeine in it. You should try swithcing to tea for awhile, it will help with the headache since it's caffeine related."

" I guess it won't hurt to try. Would you like some aswell?"

"Yes, thank you."

Janeway got up from her seat, and got two cups of tea from the replicator. She set one down near Chakotay, and examined the one she still held. Chakotay looked at her questionably. Reluctantly. she brought the steaming cup to her mouth and took a sip. As soon as the liquid hit her tongue she wanted to spit it out. Instead she swallowed it, and took the rest of the offensive liquid back to the replicator.

"You don't like it?"

"Four words. No, substitute, for, coffee." she replied as she counted the words off with her fingers.

As the days turned into weeks without coffee, Janeway was getting sick and tired of everyone and everything. She was getting more complaints about crew-members from other crew-members everyday. It wasn't helping her headache, and it certainly wasn't helping Voyager, since everyone was so busy complaining that they were neglecting their duties.

She sat at her desk, rubbing her temples, trying to think of ways to get rid of her headache. She could go to the Doctor, but he'd just give her a long lecture about something or other. And that was something she didn't need.

"Tuvok to Janeway."

"Go ahead."

"Crewman Chell, and Ensign Kim are here to see you. Shall I send them in?"

"Fine."

Chell and Harry entered shortly after. She saw their lips moving, but her head was blocking out the words. When they stopped talking, she noticed that they were waiting for her response. She had no idea what was said, so she had to improvise. "Gentlemen, I'm sure you could work this problem out for yourselves."

"But Captain..." Chell started, but Janeway hushed him.

"No buts, you're both dismissed."

"Yes Captian." they replied in unison, and left the room. As the door was closing, she saw Tom Paris standing outside the door.

That was it, she wasn't going to be able to take any more of this. Her mind raced with all of the different possibilities to end her torture. Then one finally stuck. Without hesitation, she set it into motion. "Computer, set self-destruct for ten seconds, silent alert. Authorization, Janeway Phi Alpha." She leaned back in her chair, finally at** BOOOM**.

Janeway's eyes flew open, she looked around her quarters. It was all a dream. "Computer, what time is it?"

"It is 02:18 hours."

"Well, I'm never going to go back to sleep after that dream, might as well go get some coffee." She got out of bed, and walked to the replicator. "Computer, coffee, black."

"Unable to comply."

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A/N: Well, do you love it, hate it, please let me know.


	2. Part Two

A/N: Well Carlababe asked for more, and I like to please. Thank you to everyone who reviewed.

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"Snap out of it Kathryn, you're still dreaming." She winced when she pinched herself, which told her that she wasn't.

"Please re-state inquiry"

_'Here goes nothing' _"Elaborate."

"Cannot comply due to insufficient power."

"Oh, thank goodness." She sat down at her table with relief.

Still feeling the need for coffee, Janeway put her robe on and went to the Messhall. When she arrived, she saw all of her senior officers sitting at one of the tables, with several pots of coffee nearby. "Coffee?" Chakotay piped as the Captian came to join them.

"Love some." She greedily took the offered cup from his hands, which caused everyone at the table to give her odd stares. She put the cup down sheepishly.

"Ah, are you alright Captian?" Tom asked.

"Yes I'm fine Mr. Paris, I just had a bad dream earlier."

"Could you elaborate?" Seven asked the question that was on everyone's minds.

"I don't see why not." Everyone focused most of their attention on Janeway as she began to recite her dream. When she had finished with her story, the officers were left speechless.

"That's some dream." Harry stated.

"You're telling me, now could you hand me some more coffee?"

"Sure." He picked up one of the pots. "There seems to be a problem."

"What?"

"We're out of coffee."

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed, please let me know if you did.


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